How to build your Personal Learning Network

We are bombarded with so much information through the web and social media, sometimes relevant, sometimes not so much. We read articles or books that come across our screen, but how can we proactively select meaningful information that can help us grow professionally?  Incorporating learning consciously into everyday activities requires a change in habits and a Personal Learning Network (PLN) can be an invaluable tool to facilitate systematic learning.

What is a PLN?

A PLN is an informal learning network comprised of people that you interact with in a personal learning environment (usually the web). This is social learning at its best. It is an organized way for you to collect various articles, books, podcasts, etc. from the web to build a library of resources, connect with diverse backgrounds and thought-leaders, collaborate with others in similar fields and use it for your own learning and growth.

What are the benefits?

A PLN allows you to keep in touch with current trends and prevents you from falling behind (maintenance learning), expand your current knowledge (growth learning), spark inspiration and creativity and improve your performance through reflection.

How do you build a PLN?

First, a PLN is personalized, meaning that it is specific to your development needs. A PLN is built with people and your interactions with them.  Some points to get you started:

1.     Choose your network of people and resources carefully as you’re going to be learning from them—you’ll want a nice mix of thought leaders, professional associations and colleagues, in the field that you’re interested.

2.     Choose blogs, newsletters, podcasts, Twitter hashtags that are relevant in the field.  There’s no shortage of these so you’ll want a select number as too many will overwhelm your time.  Your reflection on the ideas presented is the key to learning and improved performance. (Harvard Business School study: Learning by thinking:  How reflection improves performance)

3.     Join discussion groups in LinkedIn.  I’ve found these to be very helpful in understanding the challenges experienced by others.  The key to these discussion groups is interaction.  The more you engage in the discussion, navigate the ideas, discard those that don’t make sense, react and incorporate those that are relevant to you, the more you’ll learn.

4.     Search out books, scholarly articles and white papers that bring out ideas that are backed by data and research.  In our easy access world, many times opinions can be mistaken for tested or proven concepts.

Once you’ve identified your sources, you’ll need a way to organize them so that you can access them easily.  There is no shortage of tools used to aggregate your PLN resources, from Flipboard, to Pocket, to Google Drive to RSS feed readers.

Next you’ll want to schedule a time and a cadence that works for you.  Consistency is the key here. As you commit to systematic continuous learning and building your own PLN, you’ll notice that it’s dynamic and changing—just as your personal and professional development should be!

 What does your PLN look like?  How do you make your PLN  a powerful tool in your development?

What’s your training philosophy?

Recently I was asked to write a bio for a conference where I would be speaking about training and support systems for a franchise organization.

As I began writing, I found myself reciting my resume…I worked here, I headed up this…blah, blah, blah.  Bios can be very boring.  But it forced me to really think about the essence of my training philosophy.

Yes, I had to present my credentials so the audience would want to listen to me, but more importantly, I felt I really needed to concisely articulate the constructs which drive my work in the training field.

Here are my 3 pillars of training development put into words by other very clever folks:

1. “Learning and teaching are not inherently linked. Much learning takes place without teaching, and indeed much teaching takes places without learning.”  Jane Bozarth
2. “You can’t teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it.”  Seymour Papert, MIT Educator
3. “We don’t care what people know, we care what they do. It’s all about performance.”  Dr. Michael Allen

Basically, it boils down to this:  as a learning practitioner I only facilitate learning;  I can’t teach anyone unless they want to learn and I can’t teach someone everything they need to know;  most importantly, it’s not about what they know, but how well they apply it.

What are the foundations of your training philosophy?

Challenges in training offshore call center agents

Our customer service department has been reluctant to use an offshore call center due to quality concerns. However the cost play was tempting and a decision was made to test an offshore call center to see if it could be a viable solution.

I walked into the call center training class as I have done hundreds of time in the past, however this one was in Manila. It looked about the same as other training rooms–tables, computers, projector, trainers, except one big difference…the agents.

I had previously done a trainer the trainer session with the four trainers that were conducting these classes, and so I was there to support as they facilitated, giving me time to observe with instructional design (ID) hat.The following are my observations along with ID implications:

Classes were conducted from 9pm to 6 am so that the agents acclimated to their over night working hours. Most of the agents were accustomed to working those hours, but still training during the night shift posed interesting challenges. I saw many agents napping at their desks during their breaks, and yawning was the norm. The trainers had to ensure high energy throughout the night, but especially in the early morning hours.

            ID implications:
           Build high energy physical games into the curriculum
           Build practice exercises in the agenda in the early morning hours (avoiding heavy new content when agent were getting tired)

The call center was “English” only, but outside in the break room, all I heard was Tagalog– acutely making the distinction between work and break time, as well making it very clear that English was not the preferred language. Due to varying language comprehension skills, instruction took longer to transfer; many times information would need to be repeated so that it was understood. Also knowing how things are normally phrased in American English could be a challenge, i.e. “May I know how to address you?”, instead of “Who am I speaking with, please?”

           ID implications:
          Use copy and examples that do not have idiomatic language. Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
          Apply/practice to assess knowledge transfer and comprehension at smaller intervals
          Include specific scripting for basic American English interactions

Most of the agents had experience in the technical support area. Learning about customer service and order placement for an online gifting retailer was fun for these agents.   They were highly motivated to do a good job. I learned that for many, if not most, of the agents this was not just a job but a career. The BPO industry is flourishing and employs over 400,000 people in Manila who are in it to succeed.

Read more about the BPO industry in the Philippines: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_outsourcing_in_the_Philippines

The mindset of these agents was refreshing compared to many of the agents in our call center and it manifested in agents coming in early and practicing and looking up information before classes started. At the onset of class there were usually many questions.

             ID implications
            Provide additional practice scenarios and more self-directed inquiry in the blended learning class format

 The training of the agents continues even after agents begin taking calls, in the form of coaching based on QA observations. The questions that are waiting to be answered at the end of the test include: How well will these agents perform compared to domestically outsourced agents? What,if any, is the impact to the customer? How easy is it to do business and maintain a relationship with the outsource partner?

There are definitely some challenges to training offshore agents, however, based on the environment, skills, and motivation of this particular agent pool, my bet would be on a high probability of success.

Brainstorming techniques: Vital tools for the performance consultant

Brainstorming can be a great way to collect data.  To help create a new brand identity for a college department, I took on the task of collecting data from the faculty through a brainstorming session.  I wanted to ensure that the session was productive in terms of generating ideas.  So, I could have simply facilitated a session or for that matter, constructed a survey, where I asked questions such as, “What does your department represent?”  or “What is the ‘personality’ of the program?” and documented the answers.

However, would I have gotten the best answers?  Maybe. Maybe not.   According to The Road to a Solution—Generating Ideas, we develop habitual ways of looking at things that prevent us from seeing beyond the obvious.  By using different methodologies of idea generation, we can get to deeper thought processes that can result in more creative solutions.

For instance, one of the techniques used for the faculty brainstorming session was photo analogy.  Two different images were presented and the question was asked, “Which one of these best represents the LDT department and why?”  Also, “Why do you feel the other image does not represent the LDT department?”  These seemingly random images (such as a chimp vs. a tiger, or a concert vs. a formal champagne toast) created a visual that help spur ideas that provided greater insight than if the participants had simply written down their thoughts.

There are many different brainstorming exercises to stimulate creative team thinking.  The common theme among all of them is the stimulation of creativity by taking advantage of the combined brainpower of a team.   Knowing and applying different brainstorming techniques can be vital tools in a performance consultant’s toolkit.

Higher attrition rates with online vs. traditional classes

One of my recurring objectives for the Customer service training department (made up of seasonal call center agents) is to lower the costs of training.  Increasing the number of self-paced online classes vs. the instructor led classes was a way to cut costs, without sacrificing quality.   However, increasing the number of online classes resulted in 10% higher attrition rates than that of the instructor led classes.

I went to my good friend, Google, for some research insights.  Everywhere I looked, the theme was the same—yes, there are documented higher attrition rates for online vs. traditional classroom.  Here is one such article that states that very fact:  http://www.usdla.org/html/journal/NOV00_Issue/story03.htm

Unfortunately, there is not much research available for the corporate environment and much more data available in the education realm. Some solutions that the article suggested:

• Giving enough time to complete the course. Our new hires have 2 days to complete the 12 hour online courses
• Ensure that the learner has the technology to take the online courses and that file downloads do not hinder completion

Also the article identified specific student characteristics as indicators of potential success:

1) being a self-starter

2) being self-disciplined

3) being knowledgeable of the technology requirements of the specific format

4) being able to meet other students and faculty in a virtual environment

5) wanting more control over learning environment.

Have you experienced higher attrition rates for your online classes?  To what do you attribute these higher attrition rates?  What solutions have you implemented to reduce the attrition?

How a beautiful question leads to critical thinking

According to Dr. Tony Wagner, critical thinking and problem solving will one of the top 7 survival skills for business leaders.  The challenge for learning professionals is how to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills.

CEO of Provide Commerce, Chris Shimojima dedicated a Leader Power Hour session on the importance of critical thinking, as it leads to innovation, better decision making and greater adaptability.  Shimojima’s underlying premise is that a key component of critical thinking is the ability to ask better questions. But, how?   In comes Warren Berger, whose book “A More Beautiful Question”, discusses the art of asking a beautiful question.

According to Berger, a beautiful question does the following:

• Identifies a problem or opportunity
• Challenges assumptions
• Shift’s people’s thinking
• Serves as a catalyst for change

In order to ask the questions to spark ideas that can be actionable, Berger recommends the Why, What if, How sequence in questioning.

1. Start with understanding the issue:  What is the problem?  Why is this an issue?  What prevents it from being solved?
2. Move to imagining the possibilities:  What if we were to do this?  What would happen if we tried to combine X and Y?
3. Advance to actionable steps:  How do we make this work? 

In looking at an issue from various angles in a systematic way, through questioning techniques, will allow for collaboration, more buy-in from the team and better ideas and solutions.

As a learning professional, my mind was buzzing after this session.  I can see a number of ways to apply the idea of a more beautiful question to learning programs for managers and even front-line employees.  Not only does it allow for more collaborative thinking, it is a natural way for participants to be actively engaged and apply critical thinking.

How do you use questioning techniques in your learning initiatives?

It sounds a lot like SAM

I came across an interesting article called “Why you need to show your work”.  

The author proposes that showing your work will help build your network and get recognition, as well as result in a better product. By “showing your work” he means that you should let people in on “the process”– how you’re going about it, what you are thinking, etc.  because it will get others interested and engaged in what you are doing.  It also allows for feedback during the process, which can used to make changes as needed.

  

Hmmm…sounds a lot like SAM, wouldn’t you say?  By sharing what you’re doing as you’re doing it, allows for input which can be used to make a more refined product. 

 

If you don’t know about SAM, check it out the book, Leaving ADDIE for SAM by Michael Allen.

Learning professionals’ new competency: Media production

 The use of video in corporate training is increasing and so must the multi-media skills of learning professionals.  That is the premise of the article, “Become a media production pro” by Jonathan Halls in the March 2014 issue of T & D magazine.  Learning is becoming more of an on-demand experience and the proliferation of videos is a telling sign that learning by videos is hugely popular.

There are several challenges for both learning executives and practitioners that are pointed out in the article.  The learning executive must put together a media learning strategy, rather than leave the inclusion of videos to chance. The strategy should include key areas such as:

• What resources the organization will invest in media production:  professional equipment, talent, in-house or outsourced production
• How the media will be used:  online classes, instructor-led, mobile learning
• What standards should there be: home-made look and feel vs. professional, branding standards
• What is the workflow:  concept, design, development, systems for making it happen 

Learning practitioners, on the other hand, should focus on:

• Developing editorial skills:  story-telling and structuring for learning
• Production skills:  recording audio, shooting video, writing script 

Instructional designers already have a head start since they have to use their editorial skills for design. However, production skills for video may be a whole new ball game—learning to operate a camera to get deliberate shots, capture good audio, adding music, etc.  Professionalizing in-house media skills will be a slow process but will get better learning results.

Just recently, I created a short video for my e-learning classes that introduced our call center agents to our peak holiday season.  It certainly was not professionalized as the article above suggests. I shot it with my iphone, the audio is erratic, and well, the whole thing is totally home-made.  And to top it off, it took me over 4 hours to create a video that is 2 minutes long—horrible ROI!  However, it does serve its purpose in introducing over 3000 agents to Mother’s Day. 

I definitely see how using videos for on demand learning can be effective.  As a learning professional, getting these skills honed will be very important in the future.  

What does it take to be a successful online learner?

What are the necessary competencies to be a successful online learner?  Good question, especially when the push for training is more and more towards e-learning and even mLearning.  How does one know if they are fit for online classes?  A self-assessment of online readiness is a good start.

Many universities administer a self-assessment for readiness for potential online learners.  Prior to the student registering for an online course, a self-assessment must be completed and a score is given as to the readiness of the learner for an online class.

The self-assessment should include, among others, the following factors:

• Technology competency:  does the learner have the comfort and ability to work on a computer?
• Access to required technology:  does the learner have access to high speed internet connection, audio capabilities, webcam, etc.
• Student Motivation:  does the learner have the initiative and drive to take an online course?
• Study Skills:  does the learner have the discipline and focus as well as sound learning skills to complete the course?
• Troubleshooting Skills:  can the learner diagnose and fix basic computer glitches?

The self-assessment may be a good tool for potential online learners to become aware of the basic competencies needed to be successful.  What other competencies or factors do you think should be included?

Examples of the self-assessment from various universities:

San Diego State University https://sunspot.sdsu.edu/pls/webapp/Survey.hybrid_learning.main

University of North Carolina
http://www.unc.edu/tlim/ser/

University of Missouri-Kansas City
http://php.umkc.edu/ia/olsurvey/